Electrochemical treatment of copper from aqueous citrate solutions using a cation-selective mambrane

An electrolytic cell having a cation-selective membrane Neosepta CM-1 was applied to treat solutions containing equimolar amounts of CuSO ₄ and citric acid. The iridium oxide and platinum coated on titanium were used as the anode and cathode, respectively. The catholyte contained the citrate-chelated Cu(II) and the anolyte consisted of NaNO ₃. All experiments were carried out at different current densities (18.5-139 A m ^-2), initial catholyte pH (1.0-9.0) and Cu(II) concentration (5-30 mM), and initial anolyte NaNO ₃ concentration (1-200 mM). An economically acceptable current efficiency ( > 50%) and recovery of Cu(II) and citrate ( > 96%) could be obtained when the feed concentration the chelated Cu(II) was sufficiently high.